Dan Cuddy, one poem

An American Hero

plunk-plunk

turn

fire

swish

though a ball through a net

doesn't make that much sound

and there were three seconds left

and

"yeah" "wow" "rock it"

Frank Manello made the shot

the Nuthins won

shouldn't have won

bunch of freshmen

against sophomores

first round intramurals

won

yeah, Frank

you got the stuff

************

four years later

Vietnam

a booby trap

platoon on patrol

no cheers

just death

Frank

hero

***********

and so now

everything is patched up

the business interests

run tours to Vietnam

everything hunky-dory

except Frank

his life

is now the memory

of that spin and shoot

and the name on a wall

in Washington

forever

as long as a name

can be carved into stone

Dan Cuddy is currently an editor of The Loch Raven Review. He has been published in many small magazines , e.g, Antioch Review, Free State Review, Iguana Review, The Potomac, Connections, L’Allure des Mots. In 2003 his book Handprint On The Window was published by Three Conditions Press.